Google Boost Lets Local Businesses Create Search Ads

Google Boost is a new online ad program that lets business owners build search ads from their Google Places account. The goal is to make the ads contextually relevant.

Google Oct. 25 extended another olive branch to local
business owners with Google Boost, a new online ad program that lets business
owners build online search ads from their Google Places account.
Google in April
revitalized
its Google Local Business Center as Google Places to help local
businesses surface information about their products and services on
Google and Google Maps. The idea is to better compete with Yelp and
other location-based services, such as Foursquare and Gowalla.

Google Boost enables business owners in San Francisco,
Chicago and Houston create contextually search ads from Google Places. The ads will appear in
the typical "Sponsored Links" section of Google.com and Google Maps results pages.

In Google's example of a restaurant owner in San
Francisco here,
a Boost ad surfaces when someone does a related search like for a type of cuisine
and location that matches the restaurant.
The ad may include business name, address, phone number
and Website, reviews and a link to the Place Page to feed consumers more info. In
cases where a map appears alongside the results, a blue pin will point to the
business.
Local business owners may create their ad of choice by
providing a brief description of their business, a Web or Place page, business
categories and a monthly budget.

Google Boost completes the campaign, designating relevant
keywords. Boost users pay when a potential customer explicitly clicks on the ad.
Business owners in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago can
sign-in to Places or claim their listing in Google Places and may see an
invitation to try Boost in the account dashboard. Businesses located in other U.S.
states can sign up to receive notification when Boost comes to their area.
Also, for those business owners concerned about how Boost
may affect their listings, Boost Product Manager Kiley McEvoy noted:
"Placement in the "Sponsored Links"
section of the page will, as always, depend on factors such as your ad's
relevance and quality. Boost does not affect the ranking of the free, organic
business listings in any way."
Boost comes nearly after a month after Google ad
executives showed off contextually-relevant
advertising technology from the company's Teracent acquisition.
Teracent's technology uses signals such as geographic
location, language, time and Website content to change the content of an ad in
real-time to make it more relevant.
Google earlier this month signaled its intent to ratchet
up its geo/local effort by moving long-time search guru Marissa Mayer to run the business.
Mayer brings a strong artificial intelligence background,
signaling a shift in Google's local business to focus on autonomous search to better
bridge the gap between consumers and search results, and ultimately,
advertisers.